Category: Health and Medicine

A team of researchers in the United States found a link between long-term use of cannabis and the development of testicular germ cell tumors. Men with long-term cannabis use were 36 percent more likely to develop testicular cancer than those who did not use the drug.

The findings follow an analysis of data collected by a Canadian phone app that gathered feedback offered by 1,300 headache sufferers and nearly 700 migraine sufferers who used marijuana to treat their head pain.

“The results reported here are very promising,” the researchers wrote, “and indicate that CBD-enriched [cannabis] may ameliorate multiple [autism spectrum disorder] symptoms even in non-epileptic patients, with substantial increase in life quality for both … patients and caretakers.”

Could cannabis be the safer alternative prescribers and patients are looking for?

Brunn will soon have company. The nursing home in New York City where she lives, the Hebrew Home at Riverdale, is taking the unusual step of helping its residents use medical marijuana under a new program to treat various illnesses with an alternative to prescription drugs. While the staff will not store or administer pot, residents are allowed to buy it from a dispensary, keep it in locked boxes in their rooms and take it on their own.

Epidyolex has been approved for two rare types of epilepsy, Lennox-Gastaut and Dravet syndromes, while the spray Sativex has been recommended for muscle spasms in multiple sclerosis (MS).

 Dr. Anil Thomas found with his team of researchers at Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center that cannabis smokers were 45% less likely to be diagnosed with bladder cancer than patients who did not smoke at all

Cannabinoids, which include any chemical derived from the Cannabis plant that exerts drug-like effects in the body, “are often advocated as a treatment for various mental health conditions,” according to the new analysis, published today (Oct. 28) in the journal The Lancet Psychiatry. Despite the hype, little evidence supports the notion that medicinal cannabinoids treat mental health disorders more effectively than placebo pills — treatments designed to do nothing, study co-author Louisa Degenhardt, a professor of epidemiology at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, said in a statement. 

ABC (USA) report, “When men smoke marijuana once a week or more, their partners are twice as likely to experience a miscarriage when pregnant, according to Boston University researchers who examined over 1,400 couples before they got pregnant”

As it turns out, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC, the high-inducing compound in weed) and other cannabinoids in marijuana act on the same receptors as the endocannabinoids our body makes, so the fact that weed can give you the munchies makes a lot of sense.

The Onion get it right again. “Our data clearly shows that cannabis is extremely beneficial for managing the persistent pain associated with the untimely passing of Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia,” said lead researcher Dr. David Morton

When examining miscarriages related to regular marijuana use, researchers found that miscarriages typically happened within eight weeks of conception, U.S. News & World Report first reported.